Second airport rises again

[Jeff N]

Maybe I'm being a bit simplistic here, but if runway capacity was the issue, would it not be possible to build a fourth runway, say as a third parallel runway into Botany Bay?

Should terminal capacity be the issue, would it not be feasible to extend either or both the domestic and international terminals?

I realise these things take time and costs lots of money, but surely they would be one hell of a lot preferable to these cruddy ideas of building an international airport in say Canberra, Goulburn or Newcastle.

Politicians would happily tell you this (C/G/N) is the way to go, but that's only because they stuffed up the opportunity build the new airport at Badgery's Creek some twenty years ago, before allowing the suburban sprawl to permanently kill the idea!

[Nigel C]

The building of the third runway caused numerous environmental issues for Botany Bay, especially in terms of sand movement. The groynes at Kurnell and Dolls Point are examples of how they've tried to slow the movement of sand. Building another runway into the bay, on top of the current Port Botany expansion project would cause all sorts of grief I would imagine. Besides, there's about 1034m separation between the current runways...where in the bay could you put another runway?

For terminal expansion, I'm pretty sure the Master Plan (publicly available on the SACL website) goes some way to addressing these issues.

[Scott L.]

A high speed rail feasability would be nice, just for a change.

[Nigel C]

Hasn't that also been studied to death by numerous governments over the past 20 years?

[Kent Broadhead]

I was assuming Scott's post was tongue in cheek....there's still a NSW HSR investigation Act on the books from 1989....

[Kent Broadhead]

Originally Posted by Nigel C

where in the bay could you put another runway?

Towra Point anyone? Or maybe moving the Cook's River mouth and obliterate Kyeemagh

[Noel White]

Originally Posted by Kent Broadhead

Towra Point anyone? Or maybe moving the Cook's River mouth and obliterate Kyeemagh

Bloody hell Kent, that's digging up an old proposal when the Department of Civil Aviation was still in power.

[Kent Broadhead]

Originally Posted by Noel White

Bloody hell Kent, that's digging up an old proposal when the Department of Civil Aviation was still in power.

What goes around comes around

And I should have said move the Cook's River mouth again, as it originally flowed along the route of 07/25, entering the bay just west of 16L/34R

[Jethro H]

Originally Posted by Kent Broadhead

I was assuming Scott's post was tongue in cheek....there's still a NSW HSR investigation Act on the books from 1989....

The "current" Federal HSR review as endorsed by Julia is well under-way and should have 'another' report due later this year. The report has a budget of $20m... so it better be more than a PowerPoint presentation with some pretty pictures.

The Terms of Reference state that it is to look at a HSR with a primary emphasis to connect Newcastle and Sydney.

Media speculation found it interesting that originally the current "Second" Airport review was suppose to come out at a similar time and placed rumours that Williamtown as the focus location for the rail and airport.... all speculation of course!
Like the previous up-teen versions, I am sure the current HSR and Second Airport Reports will just make good shredded paper.

Money is on for the next 100 years that:
- We will never see a HSR rail system connecting eastern cities.
- We will not see a Second Sydney airport within the Sydney Basin. (NIMBY seems to rule)

[Jarden S]

What is the rate of movements per hour at Heathrow? Any ideas.. It must be a fair bit higher than SYD as they have a lot more passengers but also LHR has plenty more gates to park aircraft which solves a lot of delay issues.

Here is an interesting proposal from Heathrow airport's wikipedia page:

In order to increase the number of flights, BAA have proposed using the existing two runways in 'mixed mode' whereby aircraft would be allowed to take-off and land on the same runway. This would increase the airport's capacity from its current 480,000 movements per year to as many as 550,000

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heathro...ort#Operations

Could something similar be adopted for SYD to increase its capacity to allow room for the anticipated growth to come. SYD had 289,741 movements in 2009. So Andi this is how it could possible work for SYD.